Hello, and welcome to the end of the week, which was
originally a Trainer week, but due to the lack of
Trainers in SV, has a Lv.X tagged onto the end of it.
That's not a bad thing because it's been a rather bad
week for cards, though VS Seeker did perk things up a
bit yesterday. Anyway, the card today is Absol G Lv.X!
It got a lot of hype, and if it deserved it or not will
become evident in the Battle Roads results, really, but
I can still give my opinion. The Basics of the card
first, and it has 100 HP, which for an SP Lv.X, is the
tied lowest, so I wouldn't expect it to survive too many
hits. It has a x2 Weakness to Fighting, which against
the ever popular Machamp (SF) whilst you have an Unown G
(GE) attached, will be pretty annoying, since they would
only need 2 heads to KO this card with Hurricane Punch.
-20 Psychic Resistance is always welcomed, with Gengar
(SF) and other random Psychic Pokémon likely to see some
play. 1 Retreat Cost is OK, and if you want it lower,
you could try Champions Room or Moonlight Stadium, but I
don't see why it deserves 1 Retreat Cost in the first
place anyway. Finally, it's an SP Pokémon, so gains all
that lovely support that SP's have.
Abilities next, and I'll start with the reason for it's
hype: the Poké-Power, Darkness Send. Once during your
turn when you level up your active Absol G to this card,
you get to flip 3 coins, and for each heads, you get to
send the top cards of your opponent's deck to the Lost
Zone. It doesn't sound to good first read through since
it's a one use only Poké-Power, and it's flippy, but
have a think about it. It may be flippy, but it's in the
same way that Time-Space Distortion is flippy, and
people love that. It's because it's 3 coins, unlike the
1 for most cards. Because of that, you are likely to
send at least 1 card to the Lost Zone. And that's the
other brilliant thing about it, it sends to the Lost
Zone. Send cards there, and your opponent won't be able
to retrieve them, making it brilliant if you hit
something good, like a Claydol (GE), main attacker, or
tech that helps them in this match-up. The only real
downside is that it's once use only, but you can re-use
it thanks to Poké Turn and Super Scoop Up, so it isn't
that bad really.
The attack is a could do better thing really. Darkness
Slugger costs DC (or D and an Energy Gain) and deals 30
damage, not a good start. However, if you discard a card
from your hand, you do 60 damage instead, which is
better. It can also be boosted up by dark energies, so
it could get quite nice. However, if you ask me, you
have to view this attack, and the Poké-Power as well, a
bit like that of Luxray GL Lv.X (RR), only Absol G Lv.X
has to have it's own deck, whereas Luxray GL Lv.X can
just be used as a tech.
What do I base this comparison on? Well, they both have
coming into play Poké-Powers, so you need Poké Turn at
least to get the most out of them, and they both have 2
energy attacks that can deal 60 damage with a drawback.
Which drawback is better depends upon the deck and the
playstyle of the player, but that's besides the point,
the point is, they are fairly similar cards in that
respect. However, it doesn't go much further than that,
so I'll leave this comparison alone so I can continue
reviewing the card rather than going off on a tangent.
Combos, and it has a couple of nice ones. The first one
is for use with Darkness send, and that is Chatot G (SV).
You play Chatot G and use Disrupt and Spy, so you get to
rearrange the top 4 cards of your opponents deck. Put
the best couple of cards there the top, so then Darkness
send can, with a little luck, send their good cards to
the Lost Zone, and out of play for the entire game. Is
that nice. The whole combo is re-usable as well, since
you can Poké Turn Absol G Lv.X, and Chatot G can put
itself back into the deck, so you search for it again
later. You could also add Flygon Lv.X (RR) to the mix as
well for more conventional milling. The second combo
goes with Darkness Slugger, and that is Dusknoir FB (SV).
It's Cursed Wrath attack does 10 damage for each SP
Pokémon you have in your discard pile, so you use
Darkness Slugger alot to discard SP Pokémon, then bring
up Dusknoir FB Lv.X later on in the game for Cursed
Wrath everything in sight. There are probably other
combos as well, but they are the two most obvious, so
they will do.
Counters, and the big one really is Power Spray.
Darkness Send is the main thing about the card, and if
you can stop that, then you are doing something right.
However, you can only use 4 Power Sprays in a game, but
Darkness Send can be used (and I worked this out
properly) up to 11 times during the course of a game
without using anything to get KOed Absol G's out of the
Discard Pile again (though at least 2 Premier Balls are
used to Absol G Lv.X back, and yes, I do realise this is
unlike, but it's just an example). If someone manages to
do that, then you can't stop them all the time, but you
can at east delay the inevitable, so it's still useful.
Machamp (SF) is the other big counter, either Take Out-ing
an un-Unwon G'ed Absol G Lv.X, or Hurricane Punching an
Unown G'ed Absol G Lv.X with the flip of 2 heads. Either
way, it isn't pretty for Absol G Lv.X. If you can't use
either of those, then so long as you can take the small
hits from Darkness Slugger and Faint Attack (of the
normal form), then you should be doing well (so long as
something incredibly useful hasn't been Lost Zoned).
Ratings:
Modified: On it's own, it's an alright card, sending
cards to the Lost Zone, even with a flip, is incredibly
nice, but it's rather frail, and not very powerful. With
the right combos though, it becomes pretty nasty,
getting rid of what you want to get rid of with Darkness
Send, and being able to fuel powerful attackers later on
with Darkness Slugger. However, Power Spray stopping
it's main asset (Darkness Send), Machamp dealing with it
with ease, and the fact that it is still a little on the
weak side means I don't think it's as good as it maybe
could've been. 3.5/5
Limited: If you get an Absol G as well, then this could
be pretty nasty. You can send up to 3 cards from their
deck to the Lost Zone, in which they may lose some
important cards in that, which could be nasty, and you
can discard useless cards from your hand to deal more
damage, and at most 2HKO most of what you will find
here. Lack of Special Darks is annoying, but really, it
shouldn't matter. The only problem is getting this card
out in the first place, since you will probably only be
able to run a 1-1 line. Nice if you can pull it off
though. 2.5/5
Meganium45
OK, here is a card we felt SOOO good about walking in to
the new set, and now we feel otherwise about it.
Let’s start with the good. The power allows you to flip
coins, tossing cards from your opponent’s deck into the
lost zone. Shot at removing 3 cards from the game, or,
more likely, 1-2 cards from the game. Using Poketurn,
you can probably have this go off 2-3 times per game, if
this is your strategy.
Second, the attack is very good, 2 (1 with energy gain)
with 30 or a choice to discard and move it to 60. Use a
Special dark, and you are essentially at 1 for 70. Very
nice.
I can see a “mess you up” disruption deck using Absol
(Secret Wonders), Absol G Level X, and Rhyperior having
a lot of fun causing havoc. Too bad, except for Absol G
Level X, none of them hit hard enough to really matter
in this envio, but if I can get rid of 6-10 cards of
your deck, and be able to attack at 70 for 1…I may be
able to mess you up really nicely.
Too bad they messed up the “Doom Desire” Attack of Absol
G…that would have made this card even better.
Ratings.
Modified…Jimmy Ballard will no longer be calling me with
the BDIF, so I can’t know if this will really be a part
of it…but I would like to see the first couple weeks
played out. Feels like a Colin deck could be
coming…3.2/5
Limited..odds of getting it and Absol G are minute.
Draft it. It is a Level X. Play it? Probably not. 2.5/5
Vince
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats
Absol G LV X
Absol is a pretty awesome-looking Pokémon, and his LV X
has been getting a fair amount of hype recently. People
seem to want to play him . . . but should they?
Let’s start by looking at those stats. 100 HP is kind of
meh for an SP LV X and makes Absol a little fragile.
Fighting Weakness is starting to be a problem again as
people are teching Relicanth SV and Mankey SV to deal
with the likes of Absol G and (more importantly) Luxray
GL. Resistance to Psychic is nice, though, and the
Retreat cost of [C] is very manageable.
Absol G LV X’s attack is reasonable in itself: 30 damage
for [D][C] (or you could use Energy Gain), with a extra
30 if you discard a card from your hand (which most
decks can usually afford). This has some potential if
facing a weak Basic, or something that is Weak to Dark
(the Gengar line comes to mind). A LV X that has an
attack which maxes out at 60 damage is not very likely
to win you many games through taking six Prizes though.
However, it’s not Absol’s attack that makes people want
to play him, it’s that PokePower.
When you Level Up Absol G from your hand, Darkness Send
allows you get to flip three coins. For each heads, you
get to send a card from your opponent’s deck to the Lost
Zone from where they will never return! Now, you are
certainly hoping to send some crucial cards to the Lost
Zone with this Power, but it is also part of a
rarely-used win condition . . . decking out your
opponent! This is a strategy that was used with some
success at Worlds, using Flygon LV X with Memory Berry
to lock your opponent’s weak attackers in the active
position and stop them retreating by repeatedly using
Trapinch SW’s Sand Tomb attack while Flygon’s Wind
Erosion Power discarded from their deck.
Absol G LV X would seem to be an even faster and more
effective way of milling your opponent’s cards: it is
re-usable (through PokeTurn) and sends cards to the Lost
Zone rather than the Discard (where the can be brought
back). There are, however, a few downsides to this
strategy. The most obvious ones are Power Spray and
Mesprit LA, which can prevent you from being able to use
the Power. Secondly, Darkness Send relies on coin flips,
which is always risky. Thirdly, if your opponent can get
set up in spite of Absol G LV X, they will likely have
very few problems in KOing it.
There are a few cards which you can try in combination
with Absol G LV X. Rhyperior DP also has a
coming-into-play Power which allows you to discard the
top three cards of your opponent’s deck, speeding up the
process of decking them out. If I were to ever run this
card, I would also want to max out on PokeTurns as well
as playing Super Scoop Ups, Aaron’s Collection, and
Premier Ball, so that I could re-use Absol G LV X as
much as possible and hope my opponent ran out of cards
before they took all of their prizes.
Absol G LV X can be a devastating play, but it is also a
highly risky one. It can destroy a deck, or it can
fizzle out and leave you vulnerable. I think it will be
played, and I think it will be very annoying to some
opponents, but I have my doubts as to whether it can
pull off its win condition consistently enough to
regularly make the top cut at tournaments.
Rating
Modified: 3 (has the potential to be a new archetype,
though maybe not a completely successful one)
Limited: 2 (meh attack, no PokeTurns here)
Steel_Winger
Welcome back to the Pokemon COTD!
We end the week with one of my personal favorites. I
present to you... Absol G LV. X!
All right, let's look at the basics. 100 HP is on the
low side of a LV. X Pokemon, even an SP. The only ones
that have lower HP are the Pixies. It's a Dark-type, so
it can hit for Weakness on Gengar, Dusknoir and Drifblim
FB. A x2 Weakness means that Toxicroak G (the promo) can
OHKO it possibly. Machamp can also do 80 to this guy for
1 energy (but since Absol G is a Basic it's a OHKO as
well. A -20 Resistance to Psychic is excellent, lowering
the damage from Gengar's Poltergeist attack. Gallade 4
(LV. X) will also have to cut a little deeper. A Retreat
Cost of one is manageable, and with Moonlight Stadium,
Champion's Room, and Poke Turn, it's a non-issue. It's
an SP Pokemon, so it has all of the advantages of being
such.
Absol G LV. X will mostly be used for it's Power:
Darkness Send. Upon Leveling Up Absol G from the hand,
you have the option to flip three coins. For every
heads, the top card of your opponent's deck get's sent
to the Lost Zone, never to return.
Now, just how often will you discard a certain number of
cards?
At least one card: 87.5%
At least two cards: 50%
Maximum of three cards: 12.5%
No cards at all: 12.5%
So rest assured, the chances of discarding at least one
card are very high, and there's a good chance you'll
discard at least two. It'll be very rare that you'll
discard all three cards or none at all. It's not
Rhyperior (DP) in that you discard a good, set number
all the time with the Power, but imagine your opponent's
face once they find out that you just cost them a Rare
Candy or even a LV. X Pokemon to the Lost Zone. That
could completely ruin the opponent's strategy since
there's no way to get the card(s) back at this time!
Absol G LV. X also has an attack called Darkness
Slugger. (Kinda big on the darkness thing, huh?) Anyway,
for 2 energies (or just one with Energy Gain), one which
must be Dark, you do 30 damage. However, if you discard
a card from your hand, you do an extra 30 damage. It
kinda reminds me of Luxray GL's Trash Bolt, but even
though Darkness Slugger is a little less powerful, you
can discard any card from your hand, not just an energy,
and it's not a requirement for the attack to do any
damage.
Combos? Try using Absol G LV. X with other cards that
can discard. Rhyperior (DP and SV) both have an attack
or Power that lets you discard three from the opponent's
deck. Flygon LV. X has a Body that discards from the
opponent's deck between turns. Chatot G can help if you
want to be sure that you're discarding essential cards
from the opponent's deck. By discarding for Absol G's
attack, you can draw more cards later with Claydol (GE)
or Uxie.
Absol G LV. X has great potential to do a lot even
though it is offset by a less than useful Basic (though
Doom News still makes me crack up every time I read it).
Ratings:
Modified: 3.75/5 It would get a higher rating had its HP
not been so low. But the Power is great and the attack
has an option instead of a drawback, which is nice.
Limited: 4.5/5 Even with the LV. X ratio of this set
upped supposedly, it'll be hard to come across one in
Limited. But if you get both this and it's basic, you
would be a fool almost not to play it, especially since
deck sizes here are 40 instead of the daunting 60.
This is Steel_Winger, and I will be seeing you at Battle
Roads! Specifically, the one at HobbyTown USA in Memphis
this Saturday! See you there!
